Cornwall – Rame Peninsular Walk

An account of walk in my parents local area, complete with photo gallery.

On Tuesday we did a walk in my parents local area. This post describes my particular walk (all of us did somewhat different things).

THE CONSTRAINTS

In order to fit in around people’s limitations (time and otherwise) both cars were being used – my mother, my sister and I were travelling in one to Rame Head where our walk would begin, while my father took the other to a different parking spot and walked towards us, meeting us part way through our walk. We would walk together to the second parking spot, my father would give my mother a lift back to Rame Head so she could take the other car into Liskeard where she had an appointment, and would then drive back along the route the my sister and I would be walking to give us the possibility of a lift back to the fort. He overtook just on the far side of the twin villages of Kingsand and Cawsand from the fort, my sister chose to take the lift back, while I opted to stay walking.

THE WALK

The path from Rame Head is extremely scenic, with some wonderful sea views. Out on Rame Head there was a wind blowing, but once away from the head the path was quite sheltered, and the temperature was fairly warm. The second stage of the walk, with my sister, was all road based, but there were one or two decent views along the way. The final stage, on my own, was road based until Kingsand, then on to a path through the Edgecumbe estate up the point at which that path intersects with the road above Fort Picklecombe. The path offers some fine views and was good for walking on.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my pictures taken during the walk…

Cornwall: Penzance 2 – Penzance and its Environs.

An account of my explorations of Penzance and its Environs, complete with plenty of photographs.

This is the second of three posts I shall be writing about my trip to Penzance yesterday, and deals with my time in Penzance.

EXPLORING

I began my explorations by walking along the sea front and past the harbour, before heading upwards into town. In this early part of my exploration I passed the post box which was painted gold to honour 2012 Olympic Gold medallist and Penzance native Helen Glover. I also renewed my acquaintance with the Egyptian House, a remarkable building in Penzance. After lunching in a pub I followed a different route back towards the station and the path that heads towards Marazion. This road was well chosen as it enabled me to see a statue of Penzance’s most famous son, 19th century science great Humphry Davy.

TOWARDS MARAZION

I walked along the path towards Marazion as far as a point at which there is a bridge over the railway to one side and a route down the beach on the other. I made use of both side routes, doing some photography from the bridge. I turned back at this point, deciding it was time to get a train back to Liskeard. I had enjoyed Penzance.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here is the main gallery for this post…

The Glover gold painted post box (two pics) .

The Tamar Valley Line

An account of a trip on the Tamar Valley line, complete with large photo gallery.

Yesterday was the first full of my stay in Cornwall, and this post describes my main activity for that day. Today the weather is truly vile – high winds, lashings of rain and more recently to add to the mix fog as well so that the lighthouse that is usually clearly visible from my parents apartment is currently entirely shrouded from view.

A PLAN MISFIRES

I was dropped in Plymouth yesterday with a view to purchasing a Devon and Cornwall railcard (cost £12) to gain a 1/3 discount on all train fares in the region for a year. Unfortunately such a card can only be obtained if documentation relating to an address in the area can be produced and I had no such documentation. However I bought a return ticket to Gunnislake, northern terminus of the Tamar Valley Line, cost £7.90. I had over an hour before the next train to Gunnislake was departing, so filled some of the time by gaining greater familiarity with the environs of Plymouth station. Pedestrian access from the station to other areas of town comes by a way of path that leads under a roundabout. The central area of the under-roundabout path is dedicated to wild flowers and is pleasant walking. The hour of my journey arrived…

A SCENIC JOURNEY

The journey to Gunnislake could be described as a journey of two parts in two different ways:

For the first small portion of line (Plymouth – St Budeaux Victoria Road)the stops are frequent and the surroundings urban, specifically a commercial port area whose best days were long in the past, before the line then becomes very rural in character and the stops become much more widely spaced.
The route has a hairpin at Bere Ferrers, so that the train reverses its direction fo travel for the last three stops on the route (Bere Alston, Calstock and Gunnislake).

Also, as I failed to realize for the outbound journey the windows on the side of the train from which you board at Plymouth and at Gunnislake for the return journey offer much finer views than the other, which is why the majority of my best photos from the two train journeys were taken on the return one where I positioned myself correctly.

GUNNISLAKE

Gunnislake village is down a significant hill from Gunnislake station, and Tamar Valley is still further down (I did not venture right down into the valley). The Cornish Inn offered an acceptable pint, and also a view of what I suspect to be Gunnislake’s most intriguing resident, an African Grey Parrot named Ozzy, complete with warning notice written from his perspective.

THE RETURN JOURNEY

It was sufficiently warm that I removed my jumper while in Gunnislake. The train (a two coach crawler, and fairly basic, though less spartan than the laughably misnamed ‘sprinters’ that used to do the Sheffield to Barnsley run when I lived in that part of the world) was due to depart at 15:14, and it actually did precisely that. The return run went well, and I made up for not having had many successful pictures on the outward run as you will see. I think that if I make a second excursion on this line at some point I will book to Bere Alston, walk from there to Bere Ferrers and pick up the return train at Bere Ferrers.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the pictures I took yesterday…

This one was taken through the window of my parentt’s apartment.

Cornwall 2024 – The Journey There

An account of my journey from King’s Lynn to Plymouth yesterday, with a fine photo gallery.

I am in Cornwall, staying with my parents for a few days. I travelled down yesterday, and that journey will be the subject of this post.

KING’S LYNN TO LONDON

I was booked on later trains than I would have liked – leaving Lynn on the 1:42Pm and arriving into Plymouth where my parents would be meeting me at 8:13PM. I set off from my home in North Lynn an hour before the train was due to depart from King’s Lynn, and was on the platform with huge amounts of time to spare. The train suffered a couple of minor delays en route to London but I still had over 50 minutes to get from King’s Cross to Paddington. I arrived at Paddington half an hour before the train to Plymouth was due to depart, but it took a long time for the platform information to be confirmed, and I had only a few minutes to make my way to my seat by the time that happened.

PADDINGTON TO PLYMOUTH

I was on a train that was stopping at more places than usual for a journey to Plymouth – Newbury, Hungerford, Pewsey, Westbury and Castle Cary between Reading and Taunton. I got some good pictures between London and Exeter, but it was dark by the time I got to the seaside section of route between Exeter and Newton Abbot, and that meant it was hardly possible to take pictures due to the interference of reflections owing to the extreme contrast between the brightly lit train interior and the near darkness outside. The train arrived into Plymouth almost exactly as per schedule, which I understand is not a frequent occurrence with GWR long distance services. Apart from the overcrowding on the Hammersmith & City line between King’s Cross and Paddington the journey went well overall.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my pictures to go with this post…

Cornish Winter Break 17: National Maritime Museum Cornwall Ground Floor

Starting my coverage of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my latest post about my Cornish Winter Break. In my last post in this series I paved the way for a series of posts about the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. I now commence with the ground floor.

BOATS THROUGH THE AGES

The ground floor of this museum contained a wide variety of boats, with accompanying detail about their history.

Cornish Winter Break 1: Setting the Scene

Setting the scene for a series of posts about my holiday in Cornwall.

INTRODUCTION

I spent Christmas and the New Year in Cornwall, staying at my parent’s place. In this post I set the stage for series of posts to come about the things I did while there. In addition to eight places of interest (some of which merit rather more than a single post, or indeed a single visit) I will also be describing the cooking of a meal for six, which will be accompanied by some general pictures from the vicinity of my parents place. In the rest of this post I will set out the order for the rest of the series as an appetizer.

LOOE

Definitely worth a visit if you are in that part of the world.

EDEN PROJECT

This is a truly astonishing place and one that will repay many visits. I will certainly be devoting more than one post to my visit there this holiday.

P1290257 (2) — The start of the trail through time.

P1290288 (2) — An addition to the project since my only previous visit – this building is devoted to the things we normally cannot see.

P1290413 (2) — Inside the Mediterranean Biome.

LANHYDROCK

Only a little of this place was open, and I hope to see more of it in due course.

P1290550 (2) — The gatehouse, once a hunting lodge before the big house was built.

FOWEY

The least impressive of the places we visited.

TINTAGEL

An extraordinarily scenic place, will be getting several posts in this series.

P1290954 (2) — I will be covering this bridge in detail – for the moment suffice to say that it is both superb and very necessary.

P1300013 (2) — This view from the heights of Tintagel is currently my desktop background.

P1300026 (2) — The sun prevented me from getting a really got picture of this view.

THE JAMAICA INN

This is well known to fans of Daphne Du Maurier and/ or Rosamunde Pilcher. We stopped there on the way back from Tintagel.

CHARLESTOWN

I enjoyed visiting this town, though as you will see when I post about it I consider it over-hyped.

THE MEAL

This was a success.

FALMOUTH

The last activity of the holiday – and talk about finishing on a high note. I will certainly be revisiting this town

P1300607 (2) — This splendid mosaic can be seen at Falmouth Docks station.

P1300635 (2) — The National Maritime Museum Cornwall.

P1300719 (2) — Views of Falmouth from the look out tower in the museum

Cornwall for Christmas

An account of journey from King’s Lynn to Cornwall for the festive period.

INTRODUCTION

After a very quiet day yesterday, following a day of travelling the day before I am settled at my parents place in Cornwall, where I shall be spending Christmas and the New Year. This post details the journey down, before ending with some photographs.

KINGS LYNN TO CORNWALL

On Friday night it was the sensory friendly Panto performance at the Corn Exchange, King’s Lynn, which was excellent fun. On Saturday morning, with my packing accomplished I got the 9:20AM bus from just opposite my bungalow to the town centre (my baggage was heavy, so walking would have been very tough), arriving in good time to board the 10:13 train to London. Almost precisely two hours later I arrived at King’s Cross, with 45 minutes to get from there to my pre-booked seat from Paddington to Plymouth. The Hammersmith & City line (the district/circle line station is Paddington in name only) played ball for once, and I was at Paddington in good time. There was a warning that all was not necessarily well on the GWR when the platform information for my train did not come up on the departures screen until 10 minutes before it was due to leave. Ensconced in my seat I poured a cup of coffee from my cheapo travelling flask (it proved up the job) and waited for departure…and waited some more, until an announcement came through that our driver had been delayed on an inbound service and that we would be at least 20 minutes late getting underway. At this point I phoned my mother because even with no further delays that was likely to prove enough to prevent me making my connection at Plymouth for an onward journey to St Germans. I therefore arranged to be collected from Plymouth instead. In the event, it was fully 40 minutes after our scheduled departure time that the train finally got moving. We lost no further time on the journey, although the last section between Totnes and Plymouth felt like it was taking a long time. It would have been about eight and a half hours after I had left my bungalow in North Lynn that I finally got to my parents place.

CORNWALL

A combination of tiredness from the previous day’s travelling and some fierce Cornish weather ruled out doing anything much yesterday. However today we will be going to Looe. In the bad old days of rotten boroughs the two villages of East Looe and West Looe were both recognized as parliamentary constituencies, and each returned two MPs. These days it is well known as a seaside resort.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

P1280959 (2) — A present from Karan – a London Undeground themed storage box.

P1280966 (2) — Now Assembled (three pictures)

P1280971 (2) — Pictures from the James & Sons christmas lunch – which took place at a Thai restaurant near HQ in Fakenham.

P1280989 (2) — Christmas lights in King’s Lynn

P1290008 (2) — Waiting for the panto to start (three pics)

P1290012 (2) — Shots from the living room at Fort Picklecombe, showing some fairly dramatic weather.

P1290019 (2) — Waves crashing around the lighthouse.

P1290022 (2) — Sailing in these conditions is either very brave or very foolish.

Calendars and an Apology

An explanation of my recent lack of blogging activity and a sneak preview of the 2019 aspi.blog Cornish wall calendar (I will receive the printed versions by September 24th).

INTRODUCTION

The principal purpose of this post is to give you all a sneak preview of next year’s aspi.blog wall calendar. I am also going to explain why it has been a while since I last put up a blog post.

APOLOGY/ EXPLANATION

The reason why it has been a while since my last blog post is that I have had a very busy schedule of late, between work and various volunteering activities, and the one day on which I might have done a significant amount of blogging (Saturday) I lost to illness. I was sufficiently recovered by Sunday morning to do my volunteering for Heritage Open Day at the Bank House and to enjoy some of the experience, though I curtailed things somewhat so as not to set my recovery from the horrors of the previous day back. My opportunities will be somewhat limited during the rest of this week as I will be at the Corn Exchange helping to run an NAS West Norfolk stall for much of tomorrow and will be working Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

THE CALENDAR

Here are sneak previews of the 13 key pages of the calendar (not actual size). I decided to make this calendar a celebration both of my pictures and of the fine county of Cornwall…

For January we have a picture of Fort Picklecombe:

February features Brunel’s famous bridge at Saltash:

For March the focus shifts to the far west of Cornwall, where with the exception of November and December it remains for the rest of the year. This is one of two pictures from a seal colony near St Ives to make an appearance.

The April picture is a trio – across the top a view from St Michaels Mount to Marazion, and sharing the bottom a heron at Lelant Saltings and a crab at St Ives.

May features a shot of Carbis Bay.

June features our second seal picture:

July features the seaside garden at St Michael’s Mount, which members of the public can view only from above:

August is double-up, featuring a cannon emplacement at St Michaels Mount on top and a panoramic view of the mount and causeway below:

September is a double up from St Ives showing an old phone box with a an antique Great Western Railway clock attached on one side and a close-up of the clock on the other:

October features a red admiral butterfly spotted on the descent from St Michael’s Mount:

November, sharing with July the distinction of a photo taken that month, features the lighthouse picture that is also my desktop background and the reverse side of my personal cards.

December, just to emphasise what this calendar is all about features a shot of the Cornish flag.

Each page of the calendar is 28cm wide and 21 cm high, meaning that when hanging up open and ready for use it is 28cm wide and 42cm high.

Will The 2019 Aspi.blog Calendar Be All Cornish?

Presenting an idea for the next aspi.blog wall calendar and inviting suggestions in response.

INTRODUCTION

Those of you familiar with this blog will know that a photographic wall calendar has become something of a tradition – the 2019 effort when I finally do it will be number four. I have started thinking about and this post is intended to show one possibility.

A CORNISH THEMED CALENDAR

Those of you who saw my “A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall” series (you can access them all from here) will be aware of the amazing scenery I saw while I was down there. Since it was obvious that a number of those pictures would have to feature I then started thinking about how a Cornish gallery calendar might work, and this is where I have reached so far.

THE FRONT COVER

To provide a clue of what is within this is my envisaged front cover pic if I go the “pure Cornish” route:

OTHER POSSIBLE PICTURES

January would be this one:

The other pictures that I have identified as possibles, in no particular order are these:

The Brunel bridge — This bridge is so iconic that my shot of it would have to feature.

St Michael's Mount panorama — After a number from St Ives, we move on St Michael’s Mount and its surroundings.

WHAT DO YOU SAY?

Do you think the “pure Cornish Calendar” idea works? If so do you have any other of my Cornish pictures that you would like to see featured? If not feel free to suggest others of my pictures that should be there.

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 7: Walking to St Michael’s Mount

Continuing my series about my visit to Cornwall, with the first of several posts about St Michael’s Mount.

INTRODUCTION

This series has been widely spread out – the trip it describes took place between July 12 and 16. Here is a listing of the previous posts:

Getting There
St Germans to St Ives
A Visit to a Seal Colony
The End of the St Ives Day
Crossing the Cremyll Ferry to Plymouth
Historic Plymouth

Having covered Thursday, Friday and Saturday in six posts we arfe now dealing with the Sunday, my last full day in Cornwall.

THE PLAN

As all five of us (my parents, my sister and my nephew as well as me) were making the visit to St Michael’s Mount we travelled in my parents camper van instead of using the train. We wanted to be underway by eight and achieved this. We were planning to explore St Michael’s Mount in full and then have lunch at an establishment there. Things panned out pretty much as intended. The road journey is a lot less scenic than the rail equivalent, so I am going to recommend unequivocally that anyone else planning to do this use the train – the walk from Penzance (all of which is familiar to me, although we started part way along it, having located a parking place just outside Penzance) is very scenic, while there is a longer walk available from St Erth (inland for most of its duration, instead of along the sea front). Here are a couple of satellite views:

Penzance - St Michael's Mount — The coastal route starting from Penzance.

St Erth to St Michael's Mount — The longer and mainly inland route starting from St Erth. This map also features what is in alphabetic terms the last place in Britain.

THE JOURNEY IN PHOTOGRAPHS

This section ends the post, taking us across the causeway to the base of the mount:

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